is generally better to proceed slowly when sharing the Gospel. The evangelist speaks and allows the listener to respond. Then the evangelist speaks again, in response to what was said. Someone compared evangelism to feeding pigeons in a city park. A young boy took a loaf of bread and threw the whole loaf to the pigeons, scaring them so they flew away. Then an old man picked up the loaf of bread, and asked the young boy to sit together quietly with him on a park bench. The old man proceeded to break off a few crumbs of bread from the loaf and tossed them out onto the ground. Soon a pigeon flew down and began to eat the bread. The man tossed a few more crumbs out, and more pigeons came and began to eat. Within a few minutes the whole flock of pigeons was eating. In the same way, we can offer a little spiritual truth to a person, and see if that person is interested in receiving more. The acronym FIRE is a useful tool to remember in opening a conversation and proceeding to evangelize. FIRE stands for the following terms. Family. Begin by asking, Do you have a family Most people like to talk about their family—especially their children and grandchildren. But it is not good to pressure someone if they don’t wish to talk about a divorce or some other family issue. After
